actually started as Relonar Myzzrym, which was a alternate spelling of a minor character from a book series I was reading (and still most of my avatars tend to be illustrations of drow). I kept tweaking the name as I jumped between various games and finally settled on this iteration, which I plan to keep for quite a while.

Relonar Myzzrym - chosen from the forgotten realms universe for a Guild Wars character.
Trace.Op - Trace Operator, trace taken from circuit board traces, operator from the mathematics definition. Chosen pretty much at random when picking out a new gmail address.
Relonar 'Trace' Myzzrym - In the game Entropia a middle nick-name was required, I liked Trace and eventually shortened the display name by dropping Relonar entirely.
Trace McVera - After dropping the previous first name, I didn't really have any more attachment to the Mizzrym name. Vera was chosen from the latin for 'truth', so the name could be roughly read as follows the truth.

Trace McVear - change of spelling to a more natural sounding name so it works just as good as an internet handle as a pseudonym. Even had Jeff call me Trace in idle conversation a few times; I've taken it as my own and basically answer just as fast with my chosen or given name at this point.

In a time long long ago when I was in college I took to signing my name Rbt. Y-Lee. 'Y-Lee' was my youthful attempt at a variation in the spelling of my 'legal' name, Wiley. I still sign my name that way whenever I can and online use variations on it like ylee, y_lee and so on. I also have a Rainbow Family name I use online for some things but that is another story.

"No technology can ever be too arcane or complicated for the black t-shirt crowd."

Nice and very interesting stories here^^. Mine is just derived from the chemical called "Toluol" (dunno, if it's the same name in English...EDIT: wikipedia says it's called toluene) plus a good sounding - at least for me - suffix.

I've had people liken my playful attitude to that of an otter, so there's the first bit. Then I thought it would be kind of cool and clever to make it a play on the word 'automaton', but nobody seems to get it. So it's either too clever, or not clever enough. Probably the latter. :/

I thought it would be kind of cool and clever to make it a play on the word 'automaton', but nobody seems to get it. So it's either too clever, or not clever enough. Probably the latter. :/

I got it right away, actually.

Mine is a shortening of The Chip Doctor. Back in the dim ages, I used to go visit people's houses to fix their computers. To show you how long ago this was, I'd bring along a copy of The Computer Shopper and if you needed hardware, we'd browse through that rag and find something that would work. You then ordered it and when it arrived, I'd come back and install it for you.

If I couldn't fix the problem, you owed me nothing. I only walked away unpaid twice in seven years.

I registered ChipDoc.com early in the history of the internet (about 1983) and I've renewed it twice now. The name actually came from my ex. I thought it was cute and have been using it ever since. Incidentally, I tried to get ChipDoctor.com, but it was already taken!

You can actually go there now, but I don't really have much of anything active.

When I was younger I was a bit of a hippie, and as Jarope knows I come from ome of the better countries in UK (Wales). People from wales are "affectiontley" known as taffs (because of the River Taff)== Hippytaff

I believe the meaning behind my username is too complicated to explain here

~Jeff

Ditto...

Though the story of how and why I came by this name is somewhat more interesting, as it isn't the name that was on my original birth certificate.... (it is the name that's on it now, though. ) Perhaps that'll be for another time, though. For those inclined, it has to do with a Buddhist legend about somebody I consider the original feminist... You can read a brief version of the story in the Wikipedia article on White Tara.

Username is "betazed" it is a planet from the Star Trek universe inhabited by telepathic aliens. I just picked it cause it sounded cool and was not commonly used even on Star Trek sites. I actually started to use "betazed" as the hostname for my desktop before using it as an online moniker.